Finalist cities Pittsburgh, Philadelphia not selected

PITTSBURGH (Newsradio 1020 KDKA) - State leaders are reacting to Amazon's announcement today it is putting HQ2, its second headquarters, in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Crystal City, Virginia and in Long Island City, New York.

On the KDKA Radio Morning News, Governor Tom Wolf said: "With all due respect, that's a bad decision on the part of the Amazon folks."

Mr. Wolf thinks Pennsylvania's finalist cities, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, were better choices. "We have a great location, work force, universities, we're affordable, certainly more affordable than Queens, Crystal City. Great quality of life and our governments are good."

State Senator Jay Costa sees opportunity, telling Larry Richert and John Shumway the news is disappointing, but the decision will also free up land under consideration by Amazon. The 28 acre site, Hazelwood Green and sites around the airport were "on hold because they were part of the proposal. Now the decision's been rendered we can move forward."

Both the New York and Virginia locations will get half of the projected 50,000 jobs. Amazon reportedly could not find a single finalist city with enough tech talent to fill the anticipated demand.